alternative housing

[Tonyz]

has anyone out there built/bought a mudbrick or strawbale house : We are very keen on the idea and using solar/wind power as well. We have read ALL the theory books :eek: beleve me , stayed in a strawbale B&B but are intereseted in long term residents or could you put us in contact with people you know who have done this PLEASE !!!!! Tonto

[PuppyPaw]

Hi Tonto.
Unfortunatly no, I haven't lived nor seen a strawbale or mud brick home, however I have an interest in it also, since you say you have read all the theory behind it I wont bother with the multitude of sites because I bet you have read them many times your self.

Beyond sola power or wind generation have you thought about gray water recycling also, there are many ways to skin the cat in this. it can reduce your water bills significantly and reduce your impact on the planet of course.
I personally am very interested in black water filtration, sanitation and disposal/reuse using Ozone generation and fluid evaporation and turning it into compost for the garden.

BTW if you venture into building your own enviromentally friendly home or renevating a house to be more enviromentally friendly be sure to either make regular posts here or start a blog or something so we can all see how its going.

Good luck by the way!

[silentC]

My sister and her husband built one. Says he'd never do it again, if that helps!

[Theremin]

My uncle built a mud-brick and pole house, probably about 25 years ago now. Made all the bricks himself. They still live in it. I was talking to him recently about how long it would last, and he said forever, but you have to apply to a new coat of mud every few years.

[Neo]

I have a mate here at work who has been in his strawbale house for over 3 years. He loves it and would certainly do it again. Tonto, if you have all the books then you'll have Practical Straw Bale Building by Murray Hollis - there's a picture of my mate's house on the back cover.

Unfortunately he doesn't want to get involved in the discussion but says there are plenty of resources on the web if you look around. I can vouch for the insulation properties of his place and I keep regular tabs on the climate inside his house - because everytime we freeze or boil in our place he'll recite the lovely temperature he had his place at the same time. One winter's day we went to visit and it was -1deg overnight and 14deg during the day. His house was still a balmy 21deg though he hadn't put the heater on for 3 days. I've seen him grinning while I'm mumbling under my breath paying the gas and electricity bills razzlefrazzlerazzleschnazz!!
I was sold on strawbale long before I met him 6 months ago - his is the first straw house I've been in, tho I've marvelled at wine storage sheds in the Hunter Valley.

The upshot is it's a lot of work if you do it mostly yourself and it will cost you less to build than to build a similar brick veneer dwelling - but it's no more work than if were building a brick veneer home yourself. If you get someone else to build it will cost about the same as a 'brick veneereal' house, as he says.

[Gumby]

I wouldn't build with straw. A wolf could huff and puff and blow it down.

[Wildman]

I grew up in a mud brick house that my father built, I helped him build it. Structurally it was recycled bridge timbers, mostly redgum, yellowbox and ironbark and we made our own mud bricks out of clay we dug up on the block reinforced with galvanised chicken mesh. They were stomped into home made moulds by foot. Dont use straw to reinforce your bricks, termites can get into it. The walls were coated with boiled linseed oil once in place which dried to give a very strong and durable finish. The internal walls were rendered with a hand made render mix also made from the same clay and reinforced with bondcrete to help it stick and to reduce dust. The external bricks were 14" thick and the internal bricks 10", mortar was cement based. Extremely thermally efficient walls, the external bricks weighed 30KG each.

We were also completely self sufficient in electricity and water. Power came from a wind generator and an old 10HP diesel chug chug generator charging telecom batteries. All lighting was 32V and an inverter ran all the 240V stuff.

Cheers
Ben

[Iain]

I have heard good reports about straw bale and I would subscribe to Owner Builder from your newsagent.
They have a wealth of information on anything in this vein, including architects, alternate power etc etc etc.
We built a muddy several years ago and I don't agree about a new coat of mud every few years, if it was done properly it shouldn't need it.
Apart from mud brick there is also rammed earth and a host of other ancient techniques like wattle daub (A la Montsalvat in Eltham)

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

I've built a couple of mud-brick and adobe houses over the years, mainly in the ashrams out the back of Ballaraat. Haven't had anything to do with a bale house (yet) but I've also heard a lot of good things about 'em, inc. easier construction. Enough to pique my interest, not quite enough to pique the treasurer's.

One day, perhaps.

[Grunt]

We're planning to build a strawbale on my block in Redesdale.

We're putting our house in Romsey on the market next month and when that sells. We'll move up to the block and live in a caravan.

I'll start building when we move. We'll live in a caravan with an annex for the short term. I'm going to build a strawbale shed first for a bit of practice. We'll live in the shed while I build the house.

I've been doing a lot of research on permaculture and sustainable living. Really trying to make sure the house is a as energy and resource efficient as possible.

I'll be putting both solar and wind power. We'll be a net electicity provider unless I spend too much time on my TSC-10HB.

Heating will be solar passive with in-slab heating by a heat pump hot water system (http://www.quantumenergy.com.au). We'll put a greenhouse on the north side of the house which will also provide heating. A shadehouse on the south will provide cooling. A natural evaporitive air conditioner.

I think we will using Ritek roofing. It's basically like fridge insulation except it uses corregated colourbond instead of flat metal. (http://www.ritek.net.au)

An added bonus is that I'm chucking in my job while I build the house.

I think it would be much harder to have to build a house while working a full time job.

[PuppyPaw]

Grunt, could you either keep a thread going for your self build house or start a blog, I would really like to keep up with how it goes, specially when you come too self sustainability and how you handle it all.

[ozwinner]

Here a few helpfull links.
http://www.newtonhouse.info/links.htm
http://www.ecoshop.com.au/directory%...s/building.htm

Al

[redwood]

Hi Tonto.
I personally am very interested in black water filtration, sanitation and disposal/reuse using Ozone generation and fluid evaporation and turning it into compost for the garden.

Sounds like a very interesting hobby, think i might have ago myself

[Grunt]

For black & grey water treatment we are going to use on of these

Check out the Poo-cam.

Chris

[gsouth]

Why not register your project with the TV show 'Hot Property' then we can all watch the progress )